Richard Haverlack

For more than a decade, Richard Haverlack has been writing the memoirs of others—more than thirty of them.

As a volunteer for the Good Samaritan Hospice, Richard works with patients to capture and craft compelling and sometimes poignant stories they want to tell others. Some leave these as life stories for their families, legacies for the future. Others take the opportunity to give heartfelt advice, frequently to children or grandchildren. And many simply have delightful stories they want everybody to hear.

But no matter what the motivation of the patient, their nearness to their ends works to bring forth stories that range from heartbreaking to astounding. And quite frequently, these stories surround kernels of meaning that we all can appreciate—lessons learned that we can all benefit from.

Richard has a number of degrees, but those are not what brought him to do the story writing that he does. Working with people to bring forth their stories is a unique and uniquely rewarding skill he has built simply because there were no “how to” references. Then, to help others to discover how meaningful and outright enjoyable it can be to write the story of another, he developed a course and workshop on capturing and writing the stories of another which he has taught at the university level.

Additionally, Richard speaks as an advocate for hospice in the hope that others will come to understand the benefits of it before personal situations force their hands. He does this because he himself had to scramble to find and understand hospice when his uncle at last arrived at life’s end. Richard now does whatever he can to help others to avoid the confusion and anguish he and his uncle unnecessarily endured simply because they were unaware of what hospice does and why.

For more information, visit Richard’s Facebook page or his website: http://www.memoirwriter.org.